Popular Tasting Notes

Sipdown 25- 2021
Another sip down from Dustin’s advent. I really, really like this one. It’s definitely one of the best chocolate teas I’ve ever tried. It’s not artificial tasting at all, and tastes more like unsweetened cocoa powder than a bar of chocolate. Really tasty, and something I’ll be purchasing once I get my cupboard a bit more under control.

This is a sipdown of my sample.
I really enjoyed this lovely oolong. It is a little bit vegetal and I think I prefer more roasted oolongs now. However, I would never turn down a cup of this and rather enjoyed the freshness of the leaves. I might even order more samples some time so I can enjoy it again.

I got this in this month’s Tea Sparrow box – a neat change of pace from the flavoured teas! I spent a bit of time trying to decide where to leave this tasting note, since there are duplicate entries in the database, this one under “The Mountain Tea co” and the one under “Mountain Tea”. If you look at those two company listings, one has 25 teas listed under it and the other has 19, with a fair bit of duplication. What a mess! This one has a lot more tasting notes, which is why I chose it.

This is an interesting tea! With dark oolongs I tend to assume they’re going to be heavily roasted, but this one is actually just heavily oxidized – I don’t detect any roastiness at all. It is a neat blend of malty and floral, with a light, fruity note that I convinced myself was apple after reading the description. :) It’s like a light, surprisingly floral, black tea.

I made an extra large cup of this for me, and one for a friend at work. Holy teamus half the package is gone! It felt like there was a normal amount but I need to see what the package says because it occurred to me after I’d put it away and we were off to host an event.
The tea was good though. A bit oddly sweet, it took some getting used to, but once I did? oh yes I was craving more. Not for the taste…but the euphoric ride! eesh. I was in a happy place. To be honest, I was in a work zone, since I had a bunch to do and not much time. So yeah. A better review next time.
Also. My coworker, who was fighting a cold finished it in maybe 15 min. He says it was good!!

Such a tasty, creamy peppermint black tea. I definitely get the candy peppermint vibe. It’s cooling in the mouth, even when I have a hot sip. This sort of reminds me of the various DavidsTea peppermint black blends, but I think this one is done better.

Sipdown.. I hoarded this bounty of floral coconut goodness as long as I could but it’s time to say good bye, at least for now, and move on to the other teas Cavocorax sent me. I will be ordering more of this!

additional notes: So basically Nicole sent me a random package of mostly amazing black teas YEARS ago that I’m still in love with. They are some of the absolute best black teas I still have in my collection. When I want a solid favorite black, my go to is anything from Nicole’s ziplock bag of tea. So I’m still very thankful for these teas, Nicole, if you’re out there and if you ever have any more black tea castoffs, I will probably love them so let me know and they will find a good home! So so good.

Sipdown (202/205)!

This one’s departing my cupboard with much sadness, but also in the tastiest way ever! Matcha smoothie! So, this is mixed up with one frozen banana and one and a half cups of cold milk, and it is oh so delicious and good. In total, there’s just a bit more than 1 tsp. of matcha in here, and while I could have split that into two smaller amounts this was totally the way to go.

Definitely feeling and loving the matcha buzz! Until we meet again, Pinapple Matcha!

Not always a fan of rooibos but this one has some nice flavouring including cherry, lemongrass (citrus), and vanilla. The overall effect is a a surprisingly dense feeling baked cherry custard dessert. The only thing I don’t love is that it’s a little drying. Otherwise, it’s a super nice caffeine-free option for the late evening.

Also, had no clue what clafoutis is but after googling it I think this at least tastes how it looks, for whatever that’s worth!

Edit also made a wonderful cold cup of “overnight tea”. Pleasantly creamy and fruity.

(DavidsTea 2022: 30)

Wow, no reviews except Roswell Strange’s – speaks to the popularity of this tea for sure! I put off drinking it for 8 months because I wasn’t all that interested; picked it out of my “new teas” box today strictly because it contains mate.

I’m drinking it hot, for now, and… it’s actually a fair bit better than I was expecting. Admittedly, the bar was very low because stevia, a weird ingredient list, and a less-favourable review from Ros, but it’s tasting to me like kind of a neutral lemon-ish berry flavour. The stevia in this particular cup isn’t overwhelming, but that’s likely a bit up to chance. It’s probably better chilled as lemonade, but I don’t hate it hot.

Grabbed this sample from a TTB, and oh boy is it sparkly! So pretty! I didn’t realize this would be quite so fruity. It really just tastes like an herbal hibiscus-based tea. I enjoy that variety of tea, but since the black tea is mostly undetectable in flavor, I find it pointless to have the added caffeine here. My cup of this was tart and tasty with a sweet, pleasant strawberry. It tasted best cold. I don’t know that it stood out enough that I’d purchase an herbal version of this either, but it was a decent cup.

Second soda-related tea of the evening! This one I’d not tried before, but it’s been lurking in my stash trying to catch my eye for a while now, and I figured it was time to give it a chance. I used 1.5 tsp of leaf and a piece of crystal sugar, and gave it 5 minutes. No milk this time, although it might be worth trying in future. The scent dry and while brewing isn’t putting me overwhelmingly in mind of root beer – I’m getting mainly rooibos.

I guess that’s why my first sip of the brewed tea is such a surprise. It’s a fairly dead-on recreation of a root beer float! The the slightly spicy, distinctive root beer flavour comes out in the initial sip, and then a delightful creaminess, just like vanilla ice cream, develops in the aftertaste. There’s also something that’s reminiscent of carbonation, a slightly bubbly fizziness on the tongue, although I have no idea how that’s achieved or where it comes from! This is a subtle tea, and the rooibos is relatively prominent, but the flavouring is just too good, and too accurate, for me to really want to quibble. This will be an enjoyable addition to my evening rotation, and possibly one I’ll look to restock.

Mmmm, peach white tea. This one tastes amazing of course! More focused on the white base, a bai mu dan/white peony, so lots of juicy, delicate, crisp, floral flavor in there. The peach flavor is white peach, which matches quite well with the base.
Purple peach makes a really good refreshing iced tea!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/purple-peach-white-tea-steep-city-teas-oolong-owl-tea-review/
Purple Moonkin, Tea Owls and tea pots!

Sipdown (192/194)!

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample! I’m a little sad it’s gone now, but not too torn up over it.

I brought this one to work today too. The heat was actually out this morning all throughout the store (it’s being fixed sometime between now and the opening on Friday, thankfully) so I was actually VERY thankful I had hot tea to keep me warm while working. However, my co-worker Bobbi wasn’t so fortunate – and she was freezing the entire time we were doing pricing, so I lent her my hoodie to keep warm and we split the tea 50/50.

It was good; thick and creamy. She said she liked it too, which made me happy; I’m sure I’ll make a tea drinker out of her yet!

Also, I’m super pumped because I set up a tea drinking station in the staff room today! I have a mug, measuring spoons, large teaball (and I mean LARGE – lots of room for expansion), and then I brought one of my two pouches of Butterscotch Banana, my tin of Buddha Bamboo, and a whole bunch of assorted tea bags! Hooray!

I feel like I’ll be very “at home” at my ‘new’ work place. That’s a good thing, right? ;)

This is so nice to drink when I have a headache/migraine. I don’t know if it cures me or just makes me not care, but it’s good stuff.

Please see other notes – this isn’t my first migraine rodeo. :(

’Here’s Hoping’ Teabox Round #4 – Tea #3

Oh my gosh why does this one only get a 68 rating on Steepster!!?? It is so delicious! The most root beeriest of teas. Maybe others are brewing it as an iced tea and not liking it? Or brewing it hot and not liking it? I used quite lot of the blend, steeped for a few minutes right after boiling. The description here doesn’t seem like it includes everything… there is a ton of cinnamon pieces.. more than the black tea leaves. There is a ton of sarsaparilla flavor! I’m not sure what the sarsaparilla should like as an ingredient. I think there should be mallow root instead of the white chocolate chips, which I don’t see anyway. I’m surprised there isn’t more cinnamon flavor. The color of the brew is light brown so the black tea itself isn’t very strong. But whoa it just somehow tastes so much like root beer. I would drink this instead of root beer! I also added some rock sugar. The second cup was just as tasty but slightly more cinnamon. I might keep the last couple of teaspoons of this one if it is so underappreciated. :D
Steep #1 // 2-3 tsps. // just boiled // few minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // few min steep

I think “Mmm…” is all I really need to say about this tea.

I had this at work the other day, my last sample from Bluebird Tea Co (boohooo).

I wish I would have thought to bring some of my Davidstea’s Earl’s Garden, because I really like that one, and the two blends are definitely similar.

Unfortunately, (but not really) I did get distracted when drinking this when a coworker who had to leave work a month or two ago due to a cancer diagnosis came in for a visit, I hadn’t seen him since he left work abruptly and it was awesome to see him again.

By the time i got back to my tea I had to finish it cold…. I really did enjoy it though! I would order a small amount to try it again and compare the two. I would have to figure out if they’re different enough to justify having them both. The ingredients are slightly different.

I regret not being able to really pay attention when drinking this one, but…. Not really, given the circumstances :)

Thank you again, Bluebird Tea Co!

I enjoy the flavor profile that 52teas has in most of their spiced blends. They’re similar to each other, but they’re good. I taste ginger and other mild spices. I don’t distinctly taste blackberry, but there’s a sweetness that could be the fruit there. It reminds me most strongly of a blueberry spice tea from a while ago. This is tasty – I’d drink a full size bag of this easily if I had one. I don’t think it really tastes much like its name though.

TTB

I really dislike ‘detox’ blends. It’s just…not a thing and I hate brands that try to sell any kind of detox to consumers.

Despite my annoyance at the name, decided to give it a try, as the combination of peach, cinnamon, and clove sounded interesting.

Alas, this is just cinnamon and clove- maybe a touch of ginger? Meh, it’s a spiced herbal, not something I need to have again.

Another sample from Leafhopper, thank you :)

This is an Wuyi tea I can get behind. It’s too tannic and drying to want it everyday but it has a great expression of heavenly orchid, rainforest, and gingerbread aroma. The actual taste is cedar dominant and can be a little clunky at first as I work my way around the tannins and tartness but it smooths out in later steeps into a gently sweet, rounded character of hay, gooseberry, squash, leather and chamomile. The orchid and spice-rich aftertaste and energy spread throughout my head and upper body, eliciting a mellowed, unfocused mindstate. It’s like the way a high quality incense trails with a weightlessness through undisturbed air, wrapping its resinous tendrils around whatever comes within its path, infusing, permeating. A mood-altering tea with dense meditative energy.

Taking a break from my office cleaning (it’s coming along). My biggest success of the day so far is that I finally got my Paypal account working again! Since January my account has been frozen to receiving any payments. After numerous phone calls & sitting on hold for hours, one wonderful guy got me through the redtape of setting up the ability to receive payments on my iphone/ipad & fixed my account. Whew!

I’ve enjoyed this Tiger Eye, it’s quite tasty with essence of chocolate, vanilla, & caramel. Now I’m taking a break from my office to go deposit some checks at the credit union, & I’m bringing along the last cup of this! YES, Sil, it’s another SIPdown!! That brings me down to 227 teas!

Sipdown (120)!

I started cold brewing this one last night, before I really knew that my cheek was infected and that that would affect my tea drinking tonight – though to be perfectly honest I wasn’t expecting great things from this cold brew anyway. The more I’ve thought about that initial first hot cup I had of this one the more I’ve realized it was pretty dissatisfying overall. And in general I just find cold brewed EG less tasty as well.

Turns out this one is breaking that trend though; even with ‘mouth impairments’ I thought that this was the smoothest tasting cold brewed EG I’ve had to date: the bergamot seemed to be at a more appropriate strength than it was brewed hot and I actually picked up on the vanilla notes I felt were lacking the first time around. It was silky, and had a rich, full flavour without sacrificing the flavour of the base in favor of a stronger bergamot flavour.

So, I’ve definitely changed my mind about this blend a few times now! Take that as you will – maybe it’s just not a super consistent brew? One thing is for sure – I still don’t think this is as sparkly as advertised; with the cold brew in particular the liquor ended up such a dark amber/brown that you really couldn’t pick up on the subtle sparklies at all.

C’est la vie.

So over here in America, I have no idea what a Treacle Sponge should taste like, but this is a pretty delicious tea. This sure is sweet and if there is butter involved in the dessert, a buttery sencha green base is perfect. I’m not sure how the cocoa shells, cinnamon and aniseed came into the blend… they are a lovely idea for the blend but I think I was mostly tasting the flavoring on the green tea. There is a TON of flavor here, even on the second steep. And I haven’t tasted this flavor with any other tea before. So I’m not sure I had to use 1 1/2 teaspoons to create such a tasty cup.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 30 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep